death toll

(Newser) -
The wildfires raging in California have killed at least 31 people and destroyed thousands of businesses and homes, including that of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz . The Washington Post reports that the death toll has reached "historically grim heights," with entire neighborhoods gutted and authorities facing the gruesome task...
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'And that's fine,' he says

(Newser) -
"Every death is a horror," President Trump said Tuesday while meeting with local and federal officials at Muniz Air National Guard Base in Puerto Rico, but other remarks he made weren't quite so heavy. While discussing his administration's response to the devastation on the island, he...
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Hurricane Harvey death tolls stands at at least 18

(Newser) -
The death toll attributed to Hurricane Harvey now stands at at least 18 , and a Houston cop numbers among the dead. Steve Perez, a 34-year veteran of the department, drowned Sunday while attempting to drive to work in his patrol car, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed Tuesday. Perez's...
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ATF agents investigating source of 'human-caused' blazes

(Newser) -
Crews discovered the remains of more people as they searched the rubble of wildfires that torched hundreds of homes and businesses near the Great Smoky Mountains, bringing the death toll to 11, officials in Gatlinburg, Tenn., said Thursday. The Commercial Appeal reports that Memphis couple Jon and Janet Summers are...
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But it won't cover those in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria

(Newser) -
The White House has for the first time promised to release the death toll of civilian and non-civilian casualties from US drone strikes going back to 2009, reports the Guardian . Or at least some drone strikes: The disclosure won't cover those in areas of "active hostilities" such as...
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Human life, infrastructure, and economy have been 'obliterated'

(Newser) -
A recent United Nations report that warned the Assad regime is "exterminating" civilians in Syria at alarming rates is an understatement compared to a new report from the Syrian Center for Policy Research. While other UN numbers, which the group stopped collecting in mid-2015, indicated at least 250,000...
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Body count may not be best way to gauge progress against Islamic militants

(Newser) -
Yes, about 10,000 or so ISIS militants have been killed in Iraq and Syria, the Department of Defense admits—though it hadn't planned to actually tell anyone that number. "The estimated of the number killed is correct but was not intended for release," a DoD spokesman...
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30 dead, 100 missing as Indian rescuers comb through mud

(Newser) -
More than 24 hours after yesterday's landslide in western India, authorities said the chances of survival were slim for anyone still trapped under the mud. The mudslide in Malin—a village of some 700 people about 95 miles southeast of Mumbai—has killed at least 30 people and left...
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Stands at 27; 19 victims have been identified

(Newser) -
The official death toll from Washington's mudslide has increased to 27, with the Snohomish County medical examiner's office saying 19 victims have been positively identified. That's up from 24 dead with 18 identified yesterday. The latest name to the list is 58-year-old Brandy L. Ward of Arlington....
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Four-month-old brings official death toll to 25

(Newser) -
The death toll in the Washington mudslide hit 25 in heartbreaking fashion yesterday, when rescue workers found the body of a 4-month-old girl amidst the debris. Sanoah Violet Huestis was found near the location where her grandmother's body was recovered Sunday, USA Today reports. "It's an absolute...
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Meanwhile, rebels drop key ceasefire demand

(Newser) -
The three-week-long conflict in South Sudan has been a heck of a lot bloodier than previously believed, at least according to one group's estimate. Around 10,000 people have likely died in the conflict, the International Crisis Group said yesterday—a far cry from the 1,000 estimate that...
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Says it can no longer verify 'source material'

(Newser) -
The UN's human rights office has stopped updating the death toll from Syria's civil war, confirming today that it can no longer verify the sources of information that led to its last count of at least 100,000 in late July. A spokesman for the UN Office of...
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UN says that's the number of documented dead

(Newser) -
The United Nations' human rights office released a grim number today: 92,901 confirmed killed in Syria between March 2011 and April 2013. Even worse: The actual number is probably much higher, the AP reports. At least 6,561 children are among the dead, 1,729 of them under age...
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With a lion's share of casualties in New York

(Newser) -
The East Coast is picking up the pieces and searching for bodies in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, even as states further inland brace for impact. The total US death toll is up to at least 26, according to CNN , including at least 10 in New York City alone, and...
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It's 'amazing' no one was killed amid massive destruction, he says

(Newser) -
Eighteen-wheelers were sent spinning though the air , hundreds of homes were smashed and cars crunched when as many as 13 tornadoes hit the Dallas region —but "miraculously" not a single person lost their lives, said a stunned mayor. "It looks like the Dallas-Fort Worth area really...
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War claimed close to 750K lives: historian

(Newser) -
The deadliest war in American history was even more devastating than long believed, especially for the South, according to a historian. The Civil War death toll of 618,222—360,222 from the North and 258,000 Southerners—has been in history books for more than a century. But J....
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And 5 more bodies are found, bringing death toll to 11

(Newser) -
The death toll from the Costa Concordia has inevitably risen, as Italian media announced the recovery of five more bodies; 11 are now confirmed dead, and 24 remain missing, reports the AP . Divers earlier exploded four holes into the ship to allow for entry to previously inaccessible areas. The news...
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Prisoners set fires, guards fire tear gas

(Newser) -
Smoke and flames swirled out of a Turkish prison today when an aftershock from Sunday's earthquake sparked a riot among inmates, the BBC reports. The 5.4-magnitude aftershock prompted prisoners to ask for air, according to a lawmaker who joined family members outside: "When they couldn't get...
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Commissioner on human rights calls for action

(Newser) -
Three thousand people have died in the seven-month protest campaign against President Bashar al-Assad, including at least 187 children, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has announced, urging international action to end Syria’s “ruthless repression” of its people. “The onus is on all members of the...
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But 50 killed in protests elsewhere

(Newser) -
Thousands of protesters and some military defectors stormed a small Republican Guard base today in Yemen, seizing it without firing a shot, witnesses tell the AP . Some carried sticks and rocks, and others used sandbags to form barriers in case soldiers inside the base fired. Instead the soldiers fled, leaving...
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